'Pavements' Review: One too many perspectives on '90s slacker rock staples

Pavements is undoubtedly one of the most influential bands in the world of '90s alt-rock, but Alex Ross Perry's experimental documentary struggles to succinctly spotlight all of its threads

This review was submitted from the 60th Chicago International Film Festival.

In the haze of the early ‘90s as the culture was slowly shedding its leg warmers and searching for a new identity, something was brewing in Aberdeen, Washington that would change the landscape of music moving forward. However, two years after Nirvana became a band, exploding to mainstream juggernauts and leaving behind an eternal legacy, down in Stockton, California, Pavement was busy carving out their own piece of the genre. Infused with a slacker rock aesthetic, indie-alternative act Pavement was one of many bands who rode the alt-rock wave, finding success in the wake of the genre’s mainstream exposure. Though Pavement was never intended to play live, nor saw the level of attention that Nirvana received (“Cut Your Hair” in 1994 was the closest they got), they were quite successful for the lane. The band was initially around for a decade before calling it a day, but since 1999, the band has reunited twice: once in 2010, and the other in 2022, which is still happening.

The band’s reunion in 2022 spawned the involvement of one superfan: indie director Alex Ross Perry, whose mega fandom of the band birthed a variety of creative projects. One was Slanted! Enchanted! A Pavement Musical, an off-Broadway jukebox musical, written and directed by Perry, that explores an aspiring small town rocker who finds himself in the throes of fame, love, and scores of Pavement songs. Another was Range Life: A Pavement Story, a 2023 scripted Making the Band-style biopic (also by Perry) about the band itself, starring actors Joe Keery, Nat Wolff, Tim Heidecker, and Jason Schwartzman. Yet another was a museum exhibition called Pavements 1933-2022: A Pavement Museum that combined insight and artifacts both real and fabricated about the band’s 30+ year history… you guessed it, developed by Perry. If I were a betting man, I’d say Perry is a fan.

All of these efforts combine into Pavements (2025), an experimental documentary about the ‘90s rock band, written and directed by Perry and told through highlighting these elaborate pursuits at immortalizing the slacker rockers. While Perry’s appreciation is admirable in its own right and his ambition is clearly on the screen, the unfortunate reality is that Pavements has a difficult time balancing its many threads. Only so much runtime can be given to each project, yet Perry’s aspirations don’t stop there. Pavements isn’t just the documentary about the band, it’s every documentary you could possibly conceive all at once. Perry takes his audience through the origins of the band, complete with all the trimmings, touting on each of these creative projects, the band’s breakup, the band’s reunion, the band’s re-emergence into the public eye through TikTok, and as talking head interviews to fill in the gaps. As fascinating as the scope of Pavements is in concept, the execution and direction leaves its audience wanting more.

That’s not to say that certain aspects of Pavements aren’t praise worthy, however. As someone who grew up in the chaotic trenches of community theater, it was fascinating to learn about Perry’s connection to Pavement through the play itself. If the documentary was just about the musical, Pavements could have been more focused documentary about the pitfalls of putting together an off-Broadway production, while briefly showing us how aspects of the band inspired the narrative. The casting, production history, and actual performance near the end of the film are all fascinating to watch unfurl–so interesting that I wish the film had its focus mainly on that singular thread. I understand though that Pavements is meant to experiment with the form, and making a straightforward theater documentary doesn’t satisfy that desire. The end product of that experiment overwhelmed the casual Pavement fan in me with the sheer breadth of its coverage. Experts already fluent in Pavement will likely feel deluged by the plethora of basic facts, ultimately leaving them underwhelmed with this haphazardly assembled albeit ambitious project.

C+

Feature image credit to Utopia via Deadline